Think Piece

The Role of Regulatory Cooperation in the Future of the WTO

The emergence of global value chains (GVCs) and global public goods presents an opportunity for the World Trade Organization (WTO) to play a larger role in international regulatory cooperation. This paper identifies the circumstances and modalities where the WTO is most likely to be successful. First, it assesses the circumstances in which international regulatory cooperation is best suited to be multilateralised through the WTO. Second, it considers the means by which regulatory cooperation should be pursued at the multilateral level. In particular, it recommends a hub and spoke model for promoting regulatory cooperation and maintaining the transparency and democratic accountability of that mechanism.